James Arthur delivers ‘performance of the series’ on X Factor semi-final

James Arthur rounded off The X Factor semi-final with his rendition of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power Of Love – only for
Gary Barlow to brand it ‘the performance of the series’.

James Arthur’s rendition of The Power Of Love was described as ‘performance of the series’ by Gary Barlow (Picture: Rex Features)

The 23-year-old had already wowed the judges in the first half of the show with his rendition of U2’s One as his chosen song to get him to the final – but it was The Power Of Love – recently covered by Gabrielle Aplin and featured in the John Lewis Christmas advert – which really made an impact

‘That was the performance of the series,’ Gary Barlow told him afterwards, while the others were similarly impressed.

‘I feel so proud to be a part of the show while you were on it,’ she said. ‘This is everything I wanted to see when I was watching at home a few years ago.’

Union J’s second song choice was accused of being ‘safe’ by the judges (Picture: Rex Features)

Arthur, meanwhile, admitted he was desperate to reach next weekend’s final, telling Dermot O’Leary, ‘I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.’

Meanwhile, the other two acts in the semi final, Union J and Christopher Maloney, won mixed responses from the judges for their two performances in Saturday’s semi-final.

Christopher Maloney won praise for his first semi-final performance – but the judges weren’t so sure about his second (Picture: Rex Features)

Union J fared well with their rendition of Labrinth and Emeli Sande’s Beneath Your Beautiful in the first half of the show – with Barlow saying they ‘blended brilliantly’ and adding: ‘record labels will be fighting for you’ – but he wasn’t quite so sure about their version of Westlife’s I’m Already There in the second half.

‘That was a little bit safe,’ he said, adding that the band could be ‘at risk’ of elimination due to their song choice.

The judges were also kinder to Christopher Maloney than in recent weeks as he started off the show with a powerful version of Josh Groban’s You Raise Me Up.

‘That’s a very hard song to sing,’ Nicole said, ‘you have proved your earned your place here tonight.’ Meanwhile, Tulisa praised him for a ‘perfect’ song choice,

However his efforts with Michael Buble weren’t quite so well received, with Walsh accusing him of ‘going back to the karaoke thing,’ while Tulisa said: ‘It was strong but not as strong as your first performance.’